Messages from our CEO: Kickin’ It with Kimberly
It’s important to us that we keep you well informed of current issues and barriers impacting people with disabilities. Our CEO, Kimberly Tissot, knows that you are central to our efforts to promote disability rights, justice, and freedoms. Letters will be written to you, your key supporters, about the injustices we find and the keys to the solutions we can offer as a disability-led organization.
April 2025
The Cost of Overlooking Disability-Led Organizations: A Challenge to Funders and Donors
Across the country, grantmakers and donors are investing in justice and community power. But there’s one area where giving continues to fall short— disability.
Despite more than 1 in 4 adults in the U.S. having a disability and 1 in 3 in SC, disability-led organizations receive less than 2% of foundation funding. Let that sink in. At a time when belonging is central to nearly every funding strategy, the very organizations led by the people most impacted by disability are often left out of the investment.
That has consequences.
At Able South Carolina, we are proudly disability-led, and that’s exactly what makes us powerful. Our leadership is made up of people who live with disabilities, and our staff brings both deep professional expertise and lived experience. That’s what makes us effective. We aren’t just delivering programs, we are changing systems and making sure disabled people have a place at the table. And we are doing it with the insight that only comes from living the experience of ableism every day.
Why Disability Leadership Matters
Disability-led organizations bring critical insight that can’t be replicated. Lived experience is not a side note, it’s a form of expertise. When decisions are made by those most impacted, solutions are more relevant, more sustainable, and more just.
Yet, too often, funders and donors direct resources to organizations that may serve disabled people but are not led by them. They don’t even hire disabled people. While well-intentioned, this practice sidelines disability leadership, perpetuates power imbalances, and, yes, can lead to the development of ableist programs that unintentionally harm the very community they’re trying to help.
Yes, This Still Happens
We’ve seen this firsthand. One funder once cited as a weakness in our grant application that the proposed project director was disabled. This staff member held a master’s degree from a top university, had extensive leadership experience, and lived the reality the program aimed to address. Yet their disability was seen as a liability rather than a strength.
This kind of thinking isn’t rare, it’s just rarely said out loud. And it reflects a deep, systemic bias: the idea that disabled people can’t lead.
When Disability Work Isn’t Disability-Led, Harm Happens
Too often, funders and donors assume that anyone can lead disability initiatives. But what happens when disabled people aren’t at the helm? Programs are designed without cultural competence. Services are based on assumptions instead of actual needs. And systems meant to be empowering can end up reinforcing dependency or exclusion.
This is one of the major reasons our community continues to face barriers, not just from society at large, but even from well-meaning institutions. When disability leadership is left out, ableism gets built in. And it is so harmful.
Accountability Matters
If you’re funding disability-related work, whether you’re a foundation, donor, or individual supporter, it’s time to ask:
- Is the work you’re funding led by disabled people?
- Are disabled leaders setting the vision, making decisions, and shaping the outcomes?
- Are your grantees or partners practicing inclusion, or simply providing services?
Supporting disability leadership, not just disability work, is the difference between tokenism and true belonging.
Why This Moment Demands More
We are at a critical moment. Federal disability programs are under threat. And the effects of systemic ableism are still embedded in healthcare, employment, education, housing, and emergency response systems.
Yet, even now, disability-led organizations are being overlooked for funding while others with little or no disability leadership are being elevated.
This isn’t just a funding gap—it’s a justice gap.
A Challenge to Funders and Donors: Invest in Us
If you care about making the world more fair for people with disabilities, if you care about community power, and if you care about getting it right, fund disability-led organizations.
- Review your giving portfolio. How many of your grantees or recipients are truly led by disabled people?
- Reevaluate your criteria. Are you unintentionally viewing disability as a weakness instead of the leadership strength it is?
- Rethink your partnerships. Inclusion means more than representation, it means shifting power. Why wouldn’t you want that first-hand input?
We aren’t asking for special treatment (never have, we are just given it. Yuck), we’re asking to be recognized as the leaders we are. Disability leadership is not optional. It’s essential.
The bottom line? You can’t build communities while excluding the people who understand exclusion best.
We are ready to lead. We are leading. The question is, will you invest in us, or continue to fund around us?
Fund us. Trust us. Partner with us. The time is now.
Your support allows us to continue to make SC a national leader. Will you join us on this path? Donate today or on Midlands Gives.
– Kimberly Tissot, President and CEO, Able South Carolina